December 2010 Archives

12/03/2010

Saturday, the 11th of December, 2010 marks the 300th anniversary of the first known cannibals in the State of Maine. These primitives came from (pick one):

Equatorial Africa

New Guinea

The Amazon rain forest

England

The answer is, of course, “4”. How did we end up with human flesh-eating deviants from the mother country? Easy. Just wreck a 18th century sailing ship on a 5 acre lifeless rock in December, 1710. The rock was and is Boon Island, just 6 miles off York, Maine.

Courtesy of the collection of Jeremy D'Entremont

The next necessary ingredient for this fleshfest is extreme hunger. When the Nottingham Galley, having taken on dairy products in Ireland and bound for Boston, struck the reef off Boon Island, all 14 crew members made it ashore in the winter storm. Wet and cold, they made a shelter from sailcloth. The next day they found themselves on an island without the possibility of food or an easy swim to the mainland. When the cook died a day later, they set the body adrift, but when the carpenter died after two weeks, they ate him. Without fire, they wrapped the sliced carpenter in seaweed and ate him raw. English sushi.

At least two attempts were made to construct a vessel and sail to shore. The first failed and the two men were lost. The second broke apart soon after launch, but the men made it back to their dismal rock. One of these craft however, resulted in enough wreckage (and a corpse) to alert shore-dwellers that a rescue was needed. They knew where to look: Boon Island had been the site of many shipwrecks for many years. On the 24th day a rescue party arrived and the remaining 10 men were taken to Portsmouth, NH to recover.

In the aftermath, locals began to stock the rock with a cache of provisions to aid the unlucky visitor. Later still in 1799, a wooden beacon was erected but only lasted five years. In 1811 a stone beacon was erected, destroyed and rebuilt in 1831. Finally in 1854–1855 the tallest lighthouse in New England was built — 133 feet of massive granite blocks at a cost of $25,000. This lighthouse still exists and is in the above photo, but the lighthouse keeper’s house was swept away in 1978. Today the beacon is automated and powered by photovoltaics.

The Nottingham Galley’s Captain John Deane wrote a best-seller about his ordeal, as did his first mate Christopher Langman. The two accounts were very different, both accusing the other of lying, conniving and eating the most carpenter. Others have written books too. Our woeful tale is included in Great Shipwrecks of the Maine Coast by Jeremy D’Entremont. Kenneth Roberts wrote about it in Boon Island, a novel written in 1956, as did Edward Rowe Snow in Great Storms and Famous Shipwrecks of the New England Coast. For the 300th anniversary there are many articles appearing, such as the December issue of Down East Magazine and the November 29 issue of the Nashua Telegraph.

So for Saturday the 11th of December, eat something wrapped in seaweed and remember the Boon Island cannibals.

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12/06/2010

Why do people think of lobster when they think of the State of Maine? Our Atlantic or American lobster, Homarus americanus, ranges as far south as North Carolina, but the greatest abundance is in the cold waters of Maine and Atlantic Canada. In Maine, our 2009 harvest was 78 million pounds, valued at $228.6 million. Second in the U. S. was Massachusetts with 11.6 million pounds. Maine and Massachusetts account together for 92% of the lobster landings in the U.S.A. and of that, Maine’s share is 80%.

People watching the Discovery Channel’s Lobstermen or the earlier Lobster Wars may have been surprised to find an occupation similar to Alaska’s severe Deadliest Catch. But this type of fishing is not typical. Most lobster landings are closer to shore and from much smaller boats in the summer months. These familiar boats are what visitors see when they visit Maine. The TV show would probably have been a dismal failure without rough weather and boats big enough and out at sea long enough to host gossip and bitter quarrels.

Why do lobster landings keep going up in Maine? We keep hearing about overfishing and crashing stocks but lobsters continue to thrive…for now.

Rare colorful lobster caught in Maine

There are a few reasons why our lobster fishery is bucking the trend. First, lobsters are bottom feeders. They are able to thrive on a varied diet–whatever falls to the bottom or lives there. Crabs, starfish, dead fish. For a while, cowhide was being sold as a bait for traps! Secondly, the lobster’s main predator, cod has been overfished and essentially removed as a threat especially in shallow waters. Third, the growth of the urchin fishery has taken the pressure off the urchin’s food, kelp. It is thought that kelp beds are great nurseries for larval lobsters. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the fishers and their equipment and methods preserve the resource better than just about all other fisheries. Think about it: The lobster is only taken when 1) it enters the trap looking for food, 2) it fails to figure out how to get out 3) the trap is hauled before a biodegradable link allows an escape hatch to open, 4) the lobster is between a certain size range, and 5) not a “v” notched or egg bearing female. These conservative measures make it almost impossible to overfish and return by some estimates, over 80% of trapped lobsters to the sea. Compare this to massive trawlers pulling miles of nets or draggers pulling up everything from the bottom. Our lobster fishers deserve much credit for this inspired management!

How did lobster fishing start? Before the arrival of Europeans, the Native Americans used the plentiful lobster as fertilizer and bait. The first lobster landing was reported in 1605 by James Rosier, a member of Captain George Weymouth’s crew. Still, in colonial times lobster was considered “poverty food”, served to prisoners and indentured servants. In Massachusetts, servants even rebelled, demanding that they not be forced to eat lobster more than three times per week! After 1840, when canning became common, the lobster industry finally took off. At that time it was common to use over 5 pound lobsters, discarding anything under 2 pounds as not worth the effort. Nowadays in Maine, any lobster over 5 inches on the body shell (carapace) or about 4-1/2 lbs must be returned to the water.

Captain John Nicolai

How can I experience Maine lobstering? The first and most important thing to know is that it is extremely illegal to tamper with traps or gear in the water! Even an abandoned trap on shore is off limits. The way to experience the Maine lobster is first, have one for dinner. You may approach a lobster fisher at a public pier and he or she may be glad to sell you one or more, or visit one of our plentiful pounds. Secondly, visit the Maine Lobster Museum at the Mount Desert Oceanarium, and the nearby lobster hatchery. Finally, take a trip out on the water with a working lobster fisherman, Captain John Nicolai aboard his Lulu, setting off from Bar Harbor.

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12/09/2010

On Monday, December 6, downeast Maine awoke to a thick blanket of snow, the first this year. The snow is wet and the ground underneath is muddy, making it difficult to plow. This means at SeaCat’s Rest a significant amount of dirt will end up on the neighbor’s lawn which will have to be raked away in spring. We got along without plowing so far (Tuesday). The trick is to charge down the road (our shared driveway is 1/4 mile long) until the drifted snow and upward slope begin to slow you down. Either you make it to the end, where the town plows have left a nice solid ridge of snow, and hope you don’t have to stop for traffic before busting through, or stop and back up to try again. Backing down the driveway in the tracks you made for 1/4 mile is not easy. Sometimes you get way off and end up stuck. The total whiteness of what you see in your rear view mirror is surreal after an autumn of browns and grays. (Technically, it is still autumn).

The snow brings another kind of change. There’s an undefinable shift in your perception of the outdoor world. It’s cleaner and dryer. The air is less penetrating and chilling. It’s brighter and prettier. When the sun emerges it’s almost too bright. You can fall down and it doesn’t hurt; your car can smash into heaps of snow without damage. It’s kind of fun. Also, there is a new found feeling of affection for your home as a warm, dry burrow. Cabin fever comes later.

The drifts mean getting plowed twice for one snowfall

Meanwhile, the ocean hasn’t heard the news. It is still doing its ocean thing. Rough, calm, tides, birds. It will have to be a very cold and calm day in mid to late January before the salty water ices over, and the cold would have to continue for days and weeks for any thickness to develop. This is rare, happening only about once every 7 years or so. So while Maine’s interior is solidly snowy, our coast can flip to rain as soon as the weather comes from the ocean. Sometimes the line between rain and snow is at our mailbox at the end of the driveway. But once the ice thickens on the water, we might as well be in Minnesota. The temps can go sub-zero in a big hurry, dashing gardener’s dreams of a mild temperate climate. It is this rapid and sudden drop which kills grapevines.

Last winter we had snow until January, and then nothing. I know this by looking at our plowing bills. It seems as soon as we’re in the snow mode, it’s over. Not the gray skies or cold rain or icy roads, just the snow. Maybe this year will be different.

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12/13/2010

The lobster supply off our Bar Harbor shores has been growing over the past several decades, but the economics of Maine’s lobster industry will always result in a hefty price for lobster. I reported in an earlier post that a typical price for the picked meat was around $35.oo per pound in 2010. I recently paid $30 per pound for frozen local claw meat from Hannaford supermarket in Ellsworth. Lobster fishers spend lots of time and diesel fuel in pursuit of their quarry. They also contend with streaks of low yields followed by booms. Finally, they have to return to the sea up to 80% of the lobster in their traps because of conservations measures which I discussed here. This all adds up to a price beyond the daily budget for family meals. So Maine lobster is an infrequent treat, but is it a healthy food? And what about the ethics of cooking lobster?

The Secret Life of Lobsters by Trevor Corson is a book which answers many questions about lobsters in an engaging semi-fictional way, and has an appendix devoted to lobster as a food called “How to cook a lobster”. In it he dispels the myth that lobster is as rich a food as the price may suggest. The problems occur when you dip the meat in butter. By itself, lobster meat is more healthful than beef or even chicken breasts, containing twenty and thirteen times less fat respectively. Vitamins are plentiful: A, B12 and E; calcium, phosphorus and zinc and plenty of omega-3 fatty acids. Just avoid the tomalley (the liver, or “green stuff”) and lobster is a darn near perfect protein source, unless you need to limit sodium. The tomalley is actually a benefit, because it makes the lobster meat free from red tide or other environmental toxins. Consider a pasta sauce with lobster to avoid unhealthy fat.

So what about the humane treatment question? How humane can it be to plunge an animal into boiling water? Again according to Corson, scientists make arguments both ways as to whether lobsters feel pain. One argument against is that lobsters and other invertebrates do not “act pained” when losing a limb or inflicted with other injuries. The actions of a lobster upon being dropped into boiling water is standard escape response. Corson goes on to say that scientists have found little evidence that the lobster’s nervous system is more sophisticated than that of an ant, housefly or mosquito. He concludes by saying that the typical lobster will cease activity after 60 to 90 seconds of being dropped into the pot, and that this can be shortened to twenty seconds by first chilling the lobster to dormancy in the freezer for a few minutes.

Assuming you are now ready to plan your lobster dinner, there is one more detail you should know. Lobsters develop toxins within several hours of death, so make sure yours are still alive before you cook them. If you want a quicker death, you can employ Julia Child’s trick and dispatch them with a knife plunged behind the head. That’s what has to happen if you broil or grill them. If you’re still too squeamish, find a recipe which calls for cooked meat and you can buy it pre-picked for about $35.00 per pound. And if you want the real Maine lobster experience, stay with us and use the 5 gallon pot to cook them in. We are now accepting reservations for 2011.

12/16/2010

I admit, Maine can be a creepy place sometimes. First there’s the long history…you can’t have ghosts unless you have dead people…the woods are thick and dark and the cemeteries are old, overgrown and hardly a place to lighten your mood. Fog shrouds our coastline at times. Then there’s the plethora of books in the “Ghosts of New England” category. No doubt written in long dark winter nights or perhaps told around an eighteenth century fireplace, these stories are part of the Maine experience. Then there’s Stephen King up in Bangor. Pet Semetary anyone? Rent the movie for a close-up of our area. Here’s a page listing “haunted” places around Bar Harbor.

Nowadays we have a new breed of ghost stories, the pseudoscientific variety. Let me say right now that I am an extreme skeptic; I don’t tolerate any mumbo-jumbo, so I report on this subject while holding my nose. I’m referring to those cable TV shows which feature investigations into the paranormal using video cameras showing green-tinted images and mysterious gizmos which record some sort of aura or electromagnetic field. All of these devices yield results which are supposed to provide “evidence” of some sort. I can’t claim I have ever sat through one of these stupid shows because I know the conclusions will always be ambiguous–the goal is to get the viewer to believe some place is haunted without coming out and saying it.

It turns out that these shows appeared about the same time as wannabe versions in Maine. Whether one caused the other I can’t say. The two I found are Maine Ghost Hunters (don’t expect me to provide a link) and Maine Ghost Hunter’s Society. Folks, I gotta tell ya, these groups are an embarrassment to me. And ME. Here’s two samples of writing in their discussion forum:

Though i never had any personal experiance with Ghots i must say that i had many different experiances or i should say unexplained and personal experiances with the Paranormal. It can be very comforting to know that we are not just imagening.

Hello. my name is *****. i am engaged and have one child. i believe i have always had a natural abbil. to sensens thing, good or bad.

Need I say more? OK, how about this: Go ahead and look at their murky photos and listen to their distorted audio (which they call EVP-electronic voice phenomenon) for a thrill. Then download this podcast from the wonderful Point of Inquiry website. The interview is with Ben Radford, a real paranormal investigator using real science. You will have to either listen to or skip ahead of an opening editorial to get to the interview.

At livescience.com, Ben writes many articles about pseudoscience, the one about ghost hunters is here.

Critical thinking is not a natural human trait. Let’s not lose it! The overwhelming majority of Mainers still have it!

12/19/2010

The Maine Lobster Council claims on their website that, “The World’s Finest Lobster Comes from Maine”. In August of 2006 they started a program of affixing sticky labels (don’t get me started on sticky labels) identifying Maine lobsters which were destined for out-of-state delivery as “Certified Maine lobster”. There was quite a backlash. It didn’t help that the then MLC executive director, Kristin Millar said,

This example of uncharacteristic Maine arrogance prompted an editorial in the Boston Globe by Brian Mcgrory on 18 Aug, 2006 titled, “Tasty Testing”, in which he ruthlessly and rightfully ridiculed the remark. Mr. Mcgrory even went so far as to do his own double blind study involving two groups of lobsters, one from Maine and the other from Massachusetts, and some Boston area chefs. (This is the kind of research I like.) The chefs chose the Massachusetts lobster as often as the Maine lobster, basically a tie. The conclusion was that Massachusetts lobster was a little sweeter, Maine saltier and with a stronger flavor. Mcgrory sums it up with,

So in a scientific study, it comes out a tie, reason enough to ignore Maine’s obnoxious stunt.

Well, I would much prefer Maine to not have a reputation for obnoxious people than have a faux better lobster. After all, there is no state line on the sea floor which lobsters cross at their peril, becoming instantly less flavorful. The whole idea is pretty silly.

To be fair I went to the MLC website to see if they backed up their claim. The closest they get to it is to state that the American lobster, Homarus americanus, which they have unilaterally renamed the “Authentic Maine Lobster”, is better because all the rest “are merely wannabes” (like the Caribbean spiny lobster), “have no claws and thus no delectable claw meat.” No claims about how our waters are cleaner or colder. In fact, since the Massachusetts lobster is also Homarus americanus, it is therefore, “Authentic Maine Lobster”, so using our powers of logic, those lobsters caught by Massachusetts are really OUR lobsters who have strayed over two state lines.

Now that I have thrashed the Maine MLC, let’s revisit the subject without obnoxious marketing slogans or annoying food stickers. Is Maine lobster better? My answer is a qualified yes, for this simple reason: Our sustainability. Maine is on track to obtain approval from the England-based Marine Stewardship Council (M.S.C.) to be certified as sustainable. This process is long and expensive and is almost over, with certification expected in 2011. We must be doing something right. I go into the reasons here. Maine Lobster fishers are plentiful and inefficient. This is a good thing; many folks are employed and the wealth of the industry is more or less equitably distributed. There are very few poverty-line sweat-shop lobster jobs. The inefficiency means that it takes more jobs to bring lobster to your table than it would if giant factory ships dragged massive baskets across the sea floor. And above all, the resource is respected and well managed. Even the ropes used on traps have been recently replaced at great cost to prevent entanglement with right whales. So you can feel good about eating Maine lobster. I’m not claiming Massachusetts or New Brunswick lobster tastes inferior in any way, just that Maine lobster has a lot going for it. Without stickers.

For a short video about sustainability in the Maine lobster industry click here.

12/22/2010

Students from several Maine schools are taking part in a project to find out where little boats go when released in the Caribbean. South Portland, Casco Bay, Belfast, Searsport and Mount Desert school students fashioned small boats and a kindly crew of a Brazilian freighter released them at the agreed upon spot. The boats all have GPS transmitters on board, so we can all find out why all that warm tropical water seems to pass us by in favor of Europe!

Belfast high school's entry USS CPS

Equipped with sails, the boats will be influenced not only by currents but also by the wind. Each student has a bet about where his or her boat will end up. These boats are not your typical kid boats, they are designed by a marine architect under the sponsorship of Educational Passages in Belfast, to withstand the long voyage and not get fouled by seaweed or fishing gear. They are 4 and a half feet long with a small downwind-type sail. Of course, the students did the building.

Although the latest boat release was about a month ago, the tracking site seems to label these boats as “2009 Atlantic passages” perhaps reflecting when the boats were built, rather than released. Each boat seems to have taken it’s own course and none appear in a hurry to get to France. Click on iBoat Track to see the position of all boats and then choose an individual boat to see its progress in a series of position readings every few hours. This is where the boats were on December 15. 2010:

from iBoattrack.com

The students hope to alert schools or town leaders on the shore of wherever their boats make landfall so that they can be retrieved. It looks like the Belfast boat has already come close to shore in the Dominican Republic. Check out updates for the Mount Desert entry here.

12/25/2010

Here on Lamoine’s shore, 8 miles from Bar Harbor, the mackerel schools show up with the warm weather and the tourists. While not as thick as in Belfast, an hour southwest, our local mackerel is certainly worth pursuing. In fact, it takes so little in effort and investment, it’s the cheapest seafood you can get. And they’re fun to catch too.

It must be said, the beauty of the fish, with its classic streamlined shape and iridescent purple coloring is somewhat unmatched by its culinary appeal. The meat is oily, sort of mushy and strongly flavored. Not the premier dining experience, but even sushi chefs serve it. The mackerel is related to the tuna and bluefish, so it has good heritage, and the fishery is reasonable healthy. Some folks find the taste quite good, especially when fresh, and the meat is high in vitamin B12 and omega 3 fatty acids. Also, unlike their larger cousins Northern Atlantic mackerel are very low in mercury, and can be eaten at least twice a week according to EPA guidelines.

Catching mackerel couldn’t be easier or more fun. The most humble of fishing pole and reel are adequate and the classic “four drop” mackerel rig can be bought anywhere for a few dollars. This rig has four hooks arranged with colorful sleeves and the impression is that when you reel in, all hooks will have a fish. This may be optimistic, but I have had more than one on occasion. Add a weighted hook at the bottom for easier casting. Spoons or bare hooks can also be used. Bait is often a cut up mackerel, but where do you get cut up mackerel before you catch the first one? Start out with whatever meat is in your fridge: a hot dog, a chicken bit or a shrimp. Or, just ask the guy fishing next to you on the dock for a bit of mackerel.

Mackerel move and feed only at certain times. The tide has a big effect on their feeding behavior and it’s best to ask around for the local knowledge. If you go to the Lamoine State Park, just glance at the floating dock to see if anyone’s fishing. This is the best mackerel spot around, so just monitor the activity there and you will have success. Alternately, throw a line overboard while sailing or kayaking, but be ready for a fight. Mackerel are feisty fish and may pull your small boat quite a distance before they tire.

Keep your fish alive or on ice as soon as possible to preserve their texture. They can be simply grilled but are especially good smoked. I have done this by placing cherry sticks under the grill of my gas barbecue, heating them until they flame and then shutting off the gas. The fish are high enough to not be reached by the flame (on the upper grill). When the wood is burned, the fish are usually done, but if not the gas can be relit for a few minutes. Enjoy a meal of Maine mackerel, Maine potatoes and Maine sweet corn!

CNN is abuzz with news of the great blizzard of ’10. New Jersey has 14 to 18 inches, New York City 13, and all their airports are closed. Here along the coast of Downeast Maine we have about 6″ so far, and it might change to rain before it’s all over. Across Frenchman Bay from our shore the sky has melted into the water in a luminescent gray void. My neighbors, new Florida transplants, are building a snowman. They tell me this is not something they could do in Florida, although their state has had some really cold temperatures lately.

Up and down the East coast it seems that temperatures are surprisingly uniform. This usually means that any weather systems coming up the coast dump most of their snow further south. By the time they get here, where we are brimming with all the necessary snow removal equipment and survival mentality, the show’s over. (I shouldn’t speak too soon, it’s still coming down).

By 5 PM today the snow will be over and our plow guy will have cleared our 1/4 mile long driveway. Our method of dealing with a Downeast blizzard is simple: stay put. Mainers are good at preparing for such an event. We watch the weather reports obsessively, hit the grocery stores the day before, stock up on batteries and generator fuel, save gallons of water in buckets and make sure the woodpile is dry and accessible. The vehicles of choice tend to be 4 wheel drive trucks or Subarus. We get by with front drive Hondas with snow tires. Our biggest challenge is usually our driveway.

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12/31/2010

Since 1997 those of us in the Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Island area have known that Martha Stewart lives nearby, and that she is likely to pop up at any time. She has a 35,000 square foot house in Seal Harbor once owned by Edsel Ford called Skylands. Anyone can walk around her upscale neighborhood and enjoy the mix of extraordinary vistas and fancy homes, as long as they respect the residents’ vigorously enforced privacy. I described one of these walks in a post on 7/29/2010 called A Walk Among the Wealthy.

In 2009 Martha wrote a short article in The Bangor Daily News in which she describes her passion for Acadia National Park and talks about her favorite hikes. The Ladder, Beehive, Precipice, Dorr Mountain, Great Head, Hunters Beach and Pemetic are nearby trails she recommends. She even presents a list of her top ten hiking tips (somewhat abbreviated here):

Use a guide book

Check the weather

Dress right; shoes, layers.

Bring a backpack with first aid, a compass, map, tissues, water, rain gear and flashlight.

Wear sunblock

Great Head Trail. Note the blue trail marker stripe on the rock

Bring a cellphone

Obey the rules; stay on the trail

Carry a camera

Bring a snack on longer hikes, and

Don’t bring a dog unless appropriate

Martha has always had a mixed reputation, people love to criticize the wealthy and famous, especially ambitious women. There are plenty of rumors and stories about her in the area, sometimes revealing her attitudes of arrogance and privilege, but I don’t know if any of them are true and I don’t imagine any of us would behave any differently if we were in her shoes. I met her once in 2004, she asked me for directions. I didn’t immediately know who she was, only that she looked familiar. She seemed pretty normal; normal clothes, ordinary car and she was driving herself. No wonder I didn’t recognize her as the billionaire Domestic Diva.

She has been known to auction off tours of Skylands for charity, so it’s unlikely that you or I will ever tour the house for free. Fortunately Martha has allowed us a virtual tour at her website. Better yet, check out Oprah’s video of Skylands. Hey, maybe Oprah will move up here too!

Skylands entrance, from http://www.themarthablog.com

The town of Mount Desert benefits from its clutch of wealthy residents. For the most part they’re only here for the summer and their property taxes pay for the highest-per-student expenditure in the county, perhaps in Maine. Their local philanthropy supports many things enjoyed by both residents and visitors, so we want to make sure they continue to find Northeast Harbor and Bar Harbor welcoming.

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